More of the Safest Places to Live in South Carolina

Population 10,000+

11-20

31-33

21-30

Rock Hill

Beaufort

Moncks Corner

Sumter

Cayce

Forest Acres

Anderson

Easly

Orangeburg

West Columbia

34-36

Greenwood

Florence

Myrtle Beach

Safest Cities in S. Carolina – Methodology

To determine the most secure towns and cities of South Carolina, our team reviewed the latest complete (2017) FBI Uniform Crime Report. Towns and cities with ten thousand residents or higher, who recorded their crime data, were considered.

We tabulated both “Violent” (aggravated assault, murder, rape and robbery) and “Property Crimes” (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft). In order to reflect the seriousness of the criminal activity, these figures were weighted. Violent crimes were added to property crimes which were factored by .50.

The sum of the two was then divided by the population in the community. For comparison purposes, we normalized the mathematical finding to reflect weighted criminal offenses per 100,000.

South Carolina Crime Ratings

While no rating system is perfect, this provides a reasonably good mathematical gauge of the overall safety and security in the community. If you’re looking to find some of the safer communities in S. Carolina, this list is a great place to start.

Bear in mind, not every town and city reports their records. If a community did not report their stats to the FBI, they will not be included in the list. Any communities with reporting ommissions or anomalies might also not be reflected in this year’s rankings.

Additionally, it is important to realize that certain areas inside any city may have much lower crime rates than other neighborhoods. This is especially valid in larger cities. Therefore, make sure to check into specific neighborhoods within the community and communicate with law enforcement to obtain a better overall impression of the security and safety on a local level.